Daniel Howden Profile picture
Founder, Director @LHReports, focus on collaborative journalism, previously @TheEconomist @Independent @RefugeesDeeply Fellow @RefugeeStudies
Apr 22 11 tweets 3 min read
A story that began with a disturbing anecdote from an African reporter, laughed at in a Dutch job centre, ended with @LHReports biggest data investigation into structural discrimination in Europe. A thread 🧵
lighthousereports.com/investigation/… When @halimasalat relocated from Kenya to the Netherlands she'd worked as a journalist. She said she'd look for a journo job & was laughed at. After joining @LHReports as a fellow her story was the genesis of our brain waste investigation
Nov 29, 2022 7 tweets 5 min read
THREAD When horrifying police brutality left 23 dead and 77 people missing at Europe's border with Africa on June 24 this year, @LHReports had already been investigating the situation in Melilla for months
lighthousereports.nl/investigation/… @LHreports We'd been searching for a young African man who was savagely beaten on camera at the same border fence - a video seen more than 5mn times. Almost anywhere else in the world his viral beating would have made his name known
Mar 14, 2022 21 tweets 6 min read
In the space of 36hrs we visited 2 Polish mothers at 2 borders, living 8hrs apart doing the same work, sheltering refugees. Marina is (rightly) made a hero, Dorota is called a criminal. This is their story & Europe’s story🧵 Marina Sestasvili-Piotrowska Marina & husband Macin turned their home & guesthouse in Gorajec, near 🇺🇦 border, into a hub for refugees & volunteers. In their kitchen Polish mixes with Ukrainian & dazed pensioners pad around smiling at people
facebook.com/chutorgorajec/
Mar 5, 2022 11 tweets 5 min read
What should we make of Europe's schizophrenic refugee response? In the week we welcomed 1.2m refugees from Ukraine do we really need to watch this young man being battered for climbing an EU border fence? Yes 🧵 As Europe rediscovers compassion for refugees we should watch this video on loop. Spain's African exclave of Melilla has long the strongest distillation of fortress Europe. Look at this & think hard
Apr 3, 2021 9 tweets 17 min read
THREAD: What is controversial tech company Palantir doing in Europe? This was our starting point in a months-long investigation over a half-dozen countries, touching police, aviation, academia & health. @LHReports @LHreports The answers have to be pieced together from fragments of heavily redacted documents, confidential sources, wary interviewees & contracts obtained by litigation or parliamentary privilege. They're not satisfyingly simple either
Sep 9, 2020 8 tweets 4 min read
THREAD: What happens next on Lesbos after the notorious Moria camp burns to the ground?

It will be rebuilt. Despite its chaotic aspect, Moria was the product of political calculations in Brussels & EUR capitals. Their calculus hasn't changed. It's fireproof Moria was the emblem of an EU deterrence policy in which the warehousing of asylum seekers in humiliating circumstances was THE point. Any other approach is seen as creating a "pull factor". This base assumption is impervious to evidence.
Oct 17, 2018 14 tweets 2 min read
THREAD: Today I'm releasing one of the most troubling stories I've worked on. It's about 3 young Afghans, the war in Syria & Moria's asylum lottery 1/13 newsdeeply.com/refugees/artic… The boys' stories are the 1st personal accounts of child soldiers pressed by Iran into the war in Syria. Lied to, threatened with prison & sent to the frontline of a foreign war. 2/13